Tag: Jose Mourinho

Not many of them, but Sidwell’s goals were memorable

STEVE SIDWELL was not a recognised goalscorer but when he did find the back of the net it was often memorable and headline-making.

Such was his most talked about goal for Brighton – hit from the centre circle away to Bristol City in a Championship match on Bonfire Night in 2016. 

Eight years earlier, he stunned Goodison Park by rifling home from 25 yards after only 31 seconds of Aston Villa’s 7 December Premier League visit to Everton.

I was at Ashton Gate to see Sidwell’s amazing 50-yard lob over stranded Robins’ ‘keeper Richard O’Donnell (Jamie Murphy added a second in promotion-chasing Albion’s 2-0 win).

Manager Chris Hughton said: “It was a wonderful strike by Sidwell on his left foot when I would have expected it more from his right. It caught everyone by surprise, including their goalkeeper.”

I was also at the City Ground, Nottingham, seven months earlier when Sidwell went on as an 85th-minute sub and scored the winner (below) in the 91st minute to earn a 2-1 victory over Forest.

With his right foot this time, he drilled the ball in from 12 yards giving Albion a fourth win in five games which extended their unbeaten run to nine games.

“We felt that the game was becoming open and we felt we could bring players off the bench who could influence the game,” said Hughton. “One thing about Steve Sidwell is that he can break forward from midfield. I did not bring him on for that, but I am very glad he did it.”

Back to that game for Villa in 2008; moments after kick-off, Everton’s Mikel Arteta lost possession to Ashley Young. He fed James Milner who in turn found Sidwell. Finding himself with a sight at goal from 25 yards, he buried a stunning shot past Tim Howard. In an extraordinary end to the game, Young, who had scored Villa’s second, got a 94th-minute winner for the visitors after Joleon Lescott thought he’d salvaged a point in the 93rd minute, netting his second of the game. 

That opener at Goodison was a rare highlight for Sidwell in what overall was an unhappy two and a half years at Villa.

Sidwell had first caught Villa boss Martin O’Neill’s eye when he scored twice for Reading in a 2-0 home victory over Villa in February 2007.

O’Neill tried to land him before he opted to join Chelsea (the team he’d supported as a boy) and, by all accounts, predecessor David O’Leary had also tried to sign him.

So, it appeared to be a case of third time lucky when in July 2008 O’Neill took him for a reported £5million fee from being a Chelsea benchwarmer and gave him a three-year contract.

Sidwell during his first Albion spell

After success at Reading, where he had been reunited with Steve Coppell (who’d had him on loan at Brentford and Brighton as a young Arsenal player, as covered in my 2017 blog post), Sidwell had a disappointing season at Stamford Bridge, where he made just seven Premier League starts. 

Managerial change didn’t help his cause: he’d been signed by Jose Mourinho who left early in the season to be replaced by Avram Grant.

Sidwell later admitted: “I left for Aston Villa in search of regular football. In hindsight, I wished I’d stayed another six months because Luiz Felipe Scolari came in and you never know what might have happened then.”

At the time, Sidwell told Villa’s official website: “For me personally, it’s about getting back and playing. I have had a year of not playing as much as I would have liked so to get out on the pitch is the first aim.” 

Although he played in both legs of the InterToto Cup tie against Odense in July, knee and calf problems delayed his league debut until the end of October which he marked with a goal after going on as a late substitute in a 4-0 win at Wigan Athletic. That and the strike at Everton were two of four league and cup goals he scored for Villa that season when his 25 appearances (20 starts + five as sub) would ultimately amount to nearly half the total he made for the club: 37 starts + 27 as sub.

He didn’t add any more goals in the claret and blue and in the remainder of his time at Villa Park he was never really a regular, eg in 2009-10 only 14 of 33 appearances were as a starter and in 2010-11, three of six under Gérard Houllier.

Although he and O’Neill clashed on occasion, the Northern Irishman did say: “I’ve been very happy with him. It’s just that other players playing in positions all over the place have been playing brilliantly. Some people are playing out of their skin at this minute in our team. But I’ve been very pleased since he’s arrived at the football club.”

Sidwell’s former Reading teammate Nicky Shorey, who’d joined him at Villa Park, had high expectations of him ahead of his second season, telling the Birmingham Mail: “I don’t think Villa have seen the best of him yet. It’s been a strange season for Siddy. He’s been out injured for long periods and he’s picked up niggles here and there. I don’t think he’s ever had that before.

“For as long as I’ve known him, he’s never really been injured, so I think that’s something new for Siddy to try and learn from.”

Shorey said Sidwell had remained positive and upbeat around Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park and reckoned: “When he comes back for pre-season and hopefully has a good pre-season you’ll see the best of him and I think everyone will be impressed with how well he can do.

“When you know Siddy, that’s all he ever does – trains and plays with a smile. You haven’t got any worries with him on that count. He just keeps going and he’ll be fine. He’s just an all-round good midfielder and I’m sure he’ll show that before too long.”

Sidwell found himself competing for a midfield place with the likes of Milner (before his move to Manchester City), Gareth Barry, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker and Craig Gardner. He revealed later that he’d fallen out with O’Neill and at one point he went on the transfer list.

After O’Neill quit in protest at the sale of Milner to City, and ahead of Houllier’s appointment, Sidwell hoped to be given a new lease of life in claret and blue.

He overcame an Achilles’ problem and declared himself raring to go after playing 90 minutes in a 4-0 reserve team win over Blackpool at Bodymoor Heath.

“I feel I’ve shown glimpses,” he told the Birmingham Mail. “In the previous years, there have been good games and some poor games.

“If I get a run of games, I am sure I can perform to the best of my ability. Hopefully, now, whoever takes charge I will just get an opportunity and I will take it.

“It is going to be tough but it is down to individuals to perform in training, perform in reserve games and show the manager you are worthy of a start.

“Once you get that, you have to take it with both hands. Fitness wise, I’ve been training really well and looking sharp. It is just games that I need. I wasn’t unfit before the injury took place.”

When the Mail spoke to him ahead of a second city derby at the end of October 2010, Sidwell sought to exploit a two-month injury absence for Petrov saying: “It is all about opinions.

You don’t play under certain managers. Under certain managers you do get a chance.

“Once you get a chance it is about taking it and staying in the team.”

Sidwell started the game but was replaced by young Barry Bannan in the 58th minute of the dour goalless draw – and it turned out to be his last game for Villa (he was an unused sub away to Fulham the following week).

It was in a 2018 interview with Donald McRae of The Guardian that Sidwell revealed the extent of his disillusionment at Villa, telling the journalist: “When I was at Aston Villa I was on the most money in my career. But that was when I was at my unhappiest. I was living in Birmingham away from my wife and family.

“My middle son caught meningitis and was in hospital. The football never really took off and me and Martin O’Neill clashed. So, it was a combination of things.”

Released on a free transfer in January 2011, after being deemed surplus to requirements by Houllier, Sidwell joined Fulham – which is a story for another blog post.

After three years with the Cottagers, he followed ex-Fulham boss Mark Hughes to Stoke City and it was from there that he made his initial return to Brighton, on a half-season loan. 

Sidwell in action for Albion against Villa

In clinching his signing in January 2016, Hughton told the Albion website: “Steve is an experienced player who has played virtually his entire career in the Premier League. He knows this club, as well as a few of the squad and will supplement our existing midfield options.

“Beram Kayal, Dale Stephens, Andrew Crofts and others have been excellent in midfield for us this season, but we also need to make sure we have good options in every position of the team, and options which will be enough for us through until the end of the season.

“Steve brings that, and in addition, he is another experienced head; he is a player who’s proven at the very top level of English football. Brighton fans will know Steve is also a great athlete and top professional.”

Although he only made six starts, Sidwell went on as a sub 13 times in that half-season. When Albion had to endure the end-of-season play-offs after missing out on automatic promotion by only drawing (1-1) the last game of the season at Middlesbrough, it was Sidwell who stepped in to fill the boots of Stephens, who was suspended after his controversial sending off by Mike Dean at the Riverside Stadium.

Unfortunately, Sidwell was one of four Albion players who had to go off injured in the 2-0 play-off first leg defeat at Sheffield Wednesday. He suffered ligament damage but was taped up and given medication to enable him to play in the home tie, although he later admitted: “I should never have played really.”

He reckoned the Amex atmosphere for that game was the best he’d ever been involved in. In spite of a valiant effort, it ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw although Sidwell said: “I ended up playing one of my better games in a Brighton shirt, which maybe cemented a contract for the following season.”

Released on a free transfer by Stoke, Sidwell signed on a permanent basis for the Seagulls and was a key component in the side that won promotion from the Championship in May 2017. He made 29 starts plus eight substitute appearances that campaign.

“The whole reason behind my return was to help the club into the Premier League,” he said.

Sidwell was on the bench as Albion began life amongst the elite but after that “a slipped disc, surgery, and then before you know it your career’s gone.”

Sidwell later admitted: “It was really hard. I came here to do a job, to get the football club into the Premier League, and then it was time to go and enjoy it. I thought I had two or three years left, but that was cut very short.”

Recognising he was blessed to have enjoyed a 20-year career, he nonetheless said: “To not really say goodbye to football, something I’d done since I left school, and also to Brighton, was really disappointing.”

He stayed on at Albion as under-16s coach (right) for a while but increasingly his work as a pitchside pundit for live TV coverage of matches took up more of his time. He is also now a regular co-host of the popular That Peter Crouch Podcast.

Sidwell is also business development director of Box3 Projects, a company that constructs and designs office spaces to be rented out or sold.

Illness and injury brought Izzy Brown’s dream to an early end

IZZY BROWN was just 20 when he joined Albion on a season-long loan from Chelsea hoping to prove his worth as a Premier League striker.

Sadly, a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury meant that ambition was thwarted after only four starts and eight appearances off the bench.

Then, at the age of 26, a twice-ruptured Achilles tendon forced him to quit the game altogether.

Brown’s ascent to the elite level of English football was rapid. He was only 16 when he made his debut for West Bromwich Albion, becoming the second-youngest player in Premier League history when he went on for the Baggies towards the end of a 3-2 defeat against Wigan in May 2013.

Two months later, Chelsea offered him five times more than West Brom were paying him and he switched to Stamford Bridge to join their scholarship scheme.

The financial cushion they gave him at such a tender age meant retiring from the game early came as less of a blow than it might have done.

“I’m thankful to Chelsea for everything they’ve ever done for me because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what my life would be like now,” Brown told Nancy Froston in an exclusive April 2023 interview with The Athletic.

“They put me in a position where, while it’s not that I don’t ever want to work again, it has set me up to provide for my family for quite a few years.”

Brown spent eight years as a Chelsea player although Brighton were the fourth of seven clubs he joined on loan over that period.

Although he scored twice on his Chelsea debut in a 5-0 pre-season friendly win over Wycombe Wanderers, he made only one competitive first team appearance and that was as a sub against his old club, West Brom, in May 2015. Chelsea lost 3-0 and Brown saw only 11 minutes of action when Jose Mourinho sent him on to replace Loic Remy.

Brown had previously been an unused sub on several occasions in the second half of the 2014-15 season, but that summer he was sent on loan to Vitesse Arnhem where he registered just the one goal in 24 appearances.

In the 2016-17 season, Brown had two loans in Yorkshire: scoring three in 20 matches for Rotherham United and then five in 21 for their fellow Championship side Huddersfield Town.

He was involved in the Terriers’ Championship play-off final win over Reading and there were reports they wanted to make his move permanent, with a fee of £8m mentioned.

But Brown thought it wasn’t the right move for him, still harbouring hopes of making it at Chelsea. “I’m still learning and I feel Brighton is the place for me to develop further,” he said.

“There were plenty of clubs calling my agent but Brighton was always my number one choice,” he told the matchday programme. He explained he wanted to learn from manager Chris Hughton, adding: “The facilities here and the ambition of the club was also important for me.”

Hughton said of the youngster: “He’s a very flexible forward player. We brought him in very much as a (number) ten, where he had played for Huddersfield last season.

“In his first loan at Rotherham he played very much off the front, went abroad played off the left, and in his first game for us and in pre-season was on the left. He has that versatility in his game.”

That first league game was the opening day defeat at home to Manchester City and he went off injured (replaced by Jamie Murphy) as Albion went down 2-0. He didn’t re-appear until 1 October away to Arsenal when he struggled as an orthodox striker in another 2-0 defeat.

Thereafter, he only made two more league starts – the 5-1 home battering by Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield.

Although Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup on 8 January gave him a chance to show what he could do from the start, the game was only six minutes old when he was forced off with the knee injury that brought his time with Albion to a close.

Hughton saw it as a big blow because he had been planning to make much more use of the young striker in the second half of the season.

“You would have seen him much more involved,” he said. “He’d had a slight hamstring injury when he first came which kept him out for a few weeks.

“But certainly I would have seen him play in more games than perhaps in that first half,” said Hughton.

“He is a very popular player here. Before he’d come here, he’d had a couple of other loans and I think that adapted him well going into a new environment.”

Brown himself had said the only player he knew before his arrival was Connor Goldson through his friendship with Jonny Taylor, who Brown had played with at Rotherham.

Deprived of Brown’s services, Hughton brought in Jurgen Locadia from PSV Eindhoven and a familiar face in Leonardo Ulloa, returning to the Amex on loan from Leicester City.

Although both were on the scoresheet when Albion dispensed with Coventry City in the fifth round of the FA Cup, it would probably be fair to say neither were a rip-roaring success. The combination of Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross were the main goal contributors.

Born in Peterborough on 7 January 1997, Isaiah Brown, to give him his proper name, said in an emotional open letter on his retirement: “As soon as I could walk, I always had a football at my feet. That was me, that was my happy place.”

He was talented enough to represent England at under 16, under 17, under 19 and under 20 levels, winning a total of 34 caps.

At Chelsea, he was in the side that won the Under-21 Premier League title in 2013-14 and the UEFA Youth League the following season.

After the disappointment of his time at Brighton being curtailed, he was still recovering in August 2018 when he went back to Yorkshire on loan to Championship Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa.

But once recovered, he was mainly involved in United’s under 21 side. He only made two substitute appearances for the first team, one in a 1-0 league defeat at QPR and one in the end-of-season play-off final that Leeds lost 4-3 on aggregate to Derby.

The following season once again saw him head out on loan for a season, this time to Luton Town. He scored once in 19 starts, plus nine games as a sub, as the Hatters narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship.

The 2020-21 season once again saw Brown heading to Yorkshire, this time with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.

It was a season that saw the club have three full-time managers and a caretaker, finishing bottom of the league and relegated to League One. Brown made only five starts plus 16 appearances off the bench.

With his contract at Chelsea finally coming to an end, his next move was a permanent switch away from the Bridge, and he signed a one-year deal with Preston North End.

Head coach Frankie McAvoy said: “He’s got good pedigree. He’s got great experience in terms of playing in the Championship and an ex-Chelsea player from a young age.

“He’s had quite a few loans over his time, some he’s done well, others maybe latterly not done as well as he hoped, so he just needs to find that self-belief again and confidence. But we’re certainly getting a player with undoubted talent, very offensive and we’re looking forward to working with him.

“He can play across the front, but probably his preferred position is a ten behind a striker or two, depending on how we play.

“He can also play in pockets off right and left, so he adds that bit of versatility to our front players and I think if we can get him up and running, believing in himself, being confident in his own ability then I’m sure he’ll endear himself to the Preston faithful.”

Brown, by then 24, said: “Now I’m getting to that age where I want to develop myself as a player and hopefully be a legend at a club, and I really feel like Preston’s a place where I could do that.”

But less than a month after signing for North End, he ruptured an Achilles during pre-season training – and he never actually played a competitive game for Preston.

“We had a pre-season game against Celtic when I was at Preston and I felt some pain in my Achilles, but it wasn’t too bad,” Brown told Froston. “Then we had a couple of days off, I came back for training and then I just passed the football, like I’d done a million times before, and I heard a pop. I thought someone had kicked me but no one was around me.

“It had snapped. So I had the surgery and it went well, but we noticed there was like a little gap in my Achilles.

“We thought maybe it’s not healed properly, but this was only after two months so we gave it time. Then I went out for some dinner and stepped down a small step and it snapped again.

“So I had two Achilles surgeries in the space of three and a half months. To come back from one is hard. To come back from two is basically impossible.”

On top of those football injuries, he got sick with hand, foot and mouth disease, then had an issue with his nervous system that led to muscle loss and affected the nerves in his feet.

He was subsequently told he had a rare and serious condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome and it was apparent he would have to retire from playing football.

In a revealing interview with Froston, he concluded: “Football was my dream. It still is my dream. But dreams have to end one day.”

In the open letter he wrote on his retirement, he said: “Football doesn’t define me as a person. I’m a father, a son, a brother and a friend, and I will be that after football.

“I’ve lived my dream and memories that will stay with me forever. To every club that I have played for, I really appreciate you all for believing in me and giving me a chance to play the game I love.”

Fans warmed to ‘indestructible’ Goldson after own goal start

CONNOR GOLDSON’S dad Winston must have had mixed emotions when his son scored the only goal of the game at the Amex on New Year’s Day 2016.

The avid Wolverhampton Wanderers fan in him would have been delighted to see his side leave the south coast with three valuable Championship points.

Unfortunately, Wolverhampton-born Connor was playing for Brighton that day – just his second game in the blue and white stripes.

What made it worse was that the defender had been on Wanderers’ books for five years as a young boy but was released when he was only 13.

Goldson must have been mortified when, in the 32nd-minute of that first game of 2016, he inadvertently diverted Jordan Graham’s cross past David Stockdale in the home goal.

Sure, injury-hit Albion had chances to restore parity or even win, but 11th-placed Wolves hung on to the lead and Chris Hughton’s luckless Seagulls saw a winless run extend to six games.

Albion also lost the next two matches but got back on track with a 1-0 win at Blackburn on 16 January and then pushed hard for an automatic promotion slot.

For Goldson, that fixture marked the start of a run of games alongside Lewis Dunk, and his first goal for the club came in a 2-1 away win at Birmingham City on 5 April, when he glanced in a Jiri Skalak set-piece delivery.

Goldson celebrates his goal at Birmingham with Beram Kayal and Lewis Dunk

He found the net again a fortnight later with a towering header from a corner as the Seagulls crushed QPR 4-0 at the Amex to edge closer to the top two (Burnley and Middlesbrough) with three games to go.

The centre-back partnership was only broken up when Dunk was shown a red card in the penultimate game, a 1-1 draw at Derby, and suspended for the final game of the ordinary league season.

Goldson was alongside returning skipper Gordon Greer for the crucial away game at Middlesbrough on 7 May when the 1-1 draw meant Boro, equal on 89 points, pipped the Albion to automatic promotion by virtue of having scored two more goals.

With Albion forced to endure the play-offs, Goldson’s involvement in the Seagulls’ bid to overcome Sheffield Wednesday cruelly came to a premature end when the centre-back was forced off injured before half-time in the first leg at Hillsborough, and Albion eventually succumbed 2-0.

The injury prevented Goldson being involved in the second leg when Dunk scored but Wednesday somehow managed a 1-1 draw to thwart Albion’s progress.

If that was a blow, it was the least of the troubles the defender would have to overcome the following season.

Frustrating though it was that Brighton brought in Shane Duffy to partner Dunk in the centre of defence, Goldson’s brief spell back in the side in early 2017 came to a juddering halt when a routine scan discovered a heart defect that required surgery.

Then it wasn’t just his football career that was under threat, but his life was in danger if urgent action wasn’t taken to operate on the swollen aorta the tests uncovered.

It has since emerged that Winston suffered a heart attack aged only 35 and Goldson’s grandfather had died of a heart problem.

The required “preventative surgery” took place at the Royal Brompton Hospital, Chelsea, leaving him with a scar down the middle of his chest. His best friend in football and former Shrewsbury teammate, Jon Taylor, told The Athletic: “He thought the worst about not playing again. He was struggling. When I saw him in the hospital it was horrible.”

Taylor was among several former Shrews people Scottish football writer Jordan Campbell spoke to for an extended article about Goldson published by The Athletic in March 2021.

“I made a T-shirt for him before a game which said ‘Stay Strong Con’. That gave him a little bit of a boost but he’s got a great family around him,” said Taylor, who is now at Doncaster. “When he had the op, and he knew he could play again, his mentality was, ‘How quickly can I get back?’. Even as young lads at Wolves we knew his mindset was second to none.”

Campbell reported how once Goldson had come to terms with the situation, he was determined to get back playing regularly, and just 15 weeks after the operation he took part in a pre-season friendly match in Austria. In a changed second half team, he lined up alongside Uwe Hünemeier against Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Physio Chris Skitt, who’d nurtured Goldson through physical issues when he was developing at Shrewsbury, said: “If I talk to kids and they say, ‘What does it take to be a professional footballer?’, I use Connor as the example.”

With a surname that lent itself so readily to the Spandau Ballet classic Gold, the “indestructible” line in the lyrics was a natural for Albion’s singing fans to pick up on.

But at the end of August 2017, on transfer deadline day, it looked certain Goldson would continue his rehabilitation into league football with a season-long loan move to Ipswich Town.

He was manager Mick McCarthy’s main target, but Albion pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute because of the collapse of a separate deal for centre-back cover they’d hoped to complete.

Goldson played in League Cup matches against Barnet and AFC Bournemouth but it wasn’t until December that he finally got his chance to feature in Albion’s debut Premier League season – and he turned in a Man of the Match performance as the Seagulls beat Watford 1-0 at the Amex.

He played in three games in January: FA Cup matches against Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough (2-1 and 1-0 wins), and the 4-0 home defeat to a rampant Chelsea.

Goldson and Duffy in action v Chelsea

As Albion progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup, Goldson once again got a start, alongside Hünemeier, as Albion beat Coventry City 3-1 at the Amex.

His last league game in an Albion shirt was as a 71st-minute substitute for Duffy in a 4-0 reverse away to Liverpool on the final day of the season.

During the close season, Goldson seized on the chance to play for his boyhood hero Steven Gerrard, who had just been appointed manager of Glasgow Rangers. Gerrard drove all the way to Brighton for face-to-face talks with Goldson and explained how he saw him as a cornerstone of the rebuilding job at Rangers.

The often magnanimous Hughton was not going to stand in his way and said on the club website: “Connor has done extremely well for the club in the three years he has been here, but he wants to play regular senior football, and at this stage we cannot give him that guarantee.

“He has been a great professional and a pleasure to work with – and he has shown a great mental strength to come through a very tough time after he underwent crucial heart surgery just over a year ago.”

Determined to seize the opportunity presented to him in Glasgow, Goldson remarkably played in 151 of 159 games Rangers took part in over the next three years; when he made his 150th appearance, it was the quickest any player had reached that landmark in the club’s history.

After Gerrard departed Rangers to take on the manager’s job at Aston Villa, Goldson indicated he wanted to make a move himself, although, at the time of writing, he remains in Glasgow.

Born on 18 December 1992, Goldson grew up on the same Wolverhampton estate as future Wanderers players Leon Clarke and Carl Ikeme.

As the son of a Wolves-mad dad, it was probably not surprising that his early footballing promise was nurtured with Wanderers. The family lived only a 10-minute car ride from Molineux.

“I was with Wolves from the age of eight until I was 13,” Goldson recalled in an Albion matchday programme article, explaining that he was in the same group as Jack Price and Ethan Ebanks-Landell, who both made it through to the first team.

“I was a striker until I was about 10 or 11, simply because I was the biggest and the quickest, but I was then converted into a centre-half,” he said. “When I got to under 14 level, the manager stopped playing me and so my dad and I made the decision to leave for Shrewsbury – and it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Shrewsbury fast-tracked Goldson through the groups and he was training with the first team by the time he was 16. He signed professional forms at 17 and made his first team debut the following year.

“I owe Shrewsbury a lot, both the first-team management and the coaches who brought me through,” he said.

In The Athletic feature, Skitt described in detail how Goldson went through a difficult physical development phase which in effect involved “putting him back together”.

The physio was responsible for resetting his body and created a specific programme comprised of core work, gym sessions and remedial work to counter the loss of power growth spurts were causing.

“We even tried to get him boxing to improve his footwork because of his canal boat shoes. He is a size 14 and they are absolutely honking,” said Skitt.

After successfully rebuilding his body, Goldson played 18 games at the start of the 2013-14 season under Graham Turner but only 11 were as a starter, so he went on a two-month loan to Cheltenham.

His loan was extended but he was recalled after first team coach and reserve team manager Mike Jackson (the chap who has taken over as caretaker Burnley manager following Sean Dyche’s sacking) was put in charge at Shrewsbury until the end of the season following Turner’s resignation. Goldson played every minute of the last 21 league games.

Shrews were relegated but the following season, under Micky Mellon, with Jackson as coach, Goldson was a key player as they bounced straight back: he won the club’s Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards and was named in the PFA Team of the Year.

Such recognition led to Brighton signing him, doubtless with half an eye on his replacing Greer, who was edging towards the end of his playing days with the Seagulls.

It was a while before Goldson got his chance and Greer admitted in The Athletic feature that the new boy’s frustration spilled over into a set-to with the skipper in training.

“Training finished and we went into the dressing room to find that the lads had laid out two sets of boxing gloves for a laugh with the Rocky music playing,” said Greer. “As soon it was over, though, it was done, as I liked Connor.”

And to show the hatchet had been well and truly buried, Goldson revealed that after he’d taken the captain’s place in the side, behind the scenes Greer had offered him encouragement and advice. “He’s been very helpful and supportive at the same time,” he said. “There are plenty of people who wouldn’t be like that, so I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

Goldson had to wait until 15 December 2015 to make his Albion debut, when he went on as a substitute for the injured Hünemeier against Middlesbrough. Unfortunately, the visitors emphatically ended Albion’s 21-game unbeaten run, winning 3-0.

That game was watched from the stands by Jose Mourinho, who’d just been deposed as Chelsea boss, catching up on the progress of his former Real Madrid colleague and Boro manager Aitor Karanka.

For the new young centre-back, the rise to playing in the Championship was all a learning experience, and he said: “I’ve been working with Colin Calderwood a lot, even after training, and as a former centre-back himself, he has put on a lot of good drills.”

Little did he know at the time there would be far greater challenges ahead.

Why Roman’s roubles spelled bad news for Alexis Nicolas

A PROMISING young midfielder edging towards first team football at Chelsea had his dreams extinguished when Roman Abramovich arrived with lorry loads of cash.

Manager Claudio Ranieri had let Alexis Nicolas know that he was heading in the right direction after he’d broken through to the fringes of the first team.

But when Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge, big name signings started to arrive and Nicolas was left way down the pecking order behind the likes of Juan Sebastián Verón, Claude Makélélé, Geremi and Scott Parker.

New boss Jose Mourinho informed the youngster he should look elsewhere to make progress, and Brighton, newly promoted to the Championship, offered a refuge for the talented London-born Cypriot under-21 international.

Albion’s midfield options were depleted at the beginning of the 2004-05 season with Simon Rodger a long-term absentee, stalwart Richard Carpenter recovering from close-season knee surgery, and Charlie Oatway also sidelined through injury.

It meant Nicolas had a chance to show what he was made of and he played 15 games on loan from the start of the season through to October.

Enthusiastic Albion boss Mark McGhee said: “He has brought energy and he has got quality. He is a certain type of player, similar in many ways to Charlie Oatway.

“He is not a box-to-box goalscoring midfielder but what he does brilliantly is that he is always in the area around the ball where you need him.

“He breaks things up quickly and, when we win possession, we go more quickly from defence into attack with Alexis in there than we did previously.”

Nicolas clearly relished the opportunity he’d been given and, as the prospects of a permanent move grew stronger, he told the Argus: “It’s flattering that Brighton want to keep me. I like it here. I am happy with the club and the manager and I don’t see why it can’t be permanent.

“If everything can come together, and I think it will be a good move, then I don’t see why it won’t go ahead.”

He added: “There is a lot of stuff to be sorted out with a lot of different people.

“All I can say is I am happy here and I like the club. They are good people and the fans are great. Anyone with an offer to come here has got to be chuffed with that, because it is a great set-up.”

McGhee made no secret of his admiration for the 21-year-old, saying: “He’s been a fixture in the team and that says it all. He is improving week in and week out and I think he has got a good future.

“He has a terrific little engine and attitude. He quietly goes about his job and he has been really important for us so far this season.

“The boy himself is modest and unassuming. He loves Chelsea, he loved being there and I am sure he will be very disappointed to leave, but he wants to be a footballer more than he wants to be a Chelsea player. That is the important thing for us.”

McGhee explained the difference Nicolas made to the side. “He has that knack of being in the right place at the right time; he seems to cover such a big area. For a physically small lad, he is everywhere.

“He anticipates where the next ball is going and gets there early, puts people under pressure, wins the ball back and activates us going forward. He wins it and, before you know it, we’re going forward.”

When he signed permanently, Nicolas said: “It feels great. You are always sad to leave a club and I have been at Chelsea for a while, but I am excited and glad that I have signed for Brighton.

“The role I play is similar to Claude Makélélé’s and I used to speak to Claude regularly. He used to give me a lot of good advice. I’ve learned from all of the players at Chelsea, but now it’s time for me to open another chapter in my life and learn some other stuff.”

Nicolas said breaking into the Chelsea first team had whetted his appetite to return to that level and he told the Albion matchday programme: “Having played in the Premiership, I would like to achieve it here at Brighton and I don’t see why one day Brighton can’t be a club in the Premiership.”

Unfortunately, he joined an injury and suspension hit squad that couldn’t compete with better-resourced clubs in the second tier because of crowd-restricted home gates at the Withdean Stadium.

While Nicolas impressed in his first season, playing in a further 19 games, McGhee was forced to sell star players Danny Cullip and Darren Currie to bolster the club’s perilous finances, and the side only just managed to avoid the drop.

The following season, with Dean Hammond and Carpenter the mainstays in central midfield, Nicolas too often watched on from the bench and missed several weeks because of ankle and knee injuries.

Asked about his watching brief from the sidelines, he said in a matchday programme article: “It’s been very frustrating for me this season and I’m upset about it. I’d like to think that a lot of the fans would like to see me out there. The manager can only pick eleven players and he’s the boss – what he says goes and I respect that.”

His frustration was barely disguised in an interview with the Argus on 23 Feb 2006, after a reserve match he was due to play in was called off.

“It seems impossible for me to get 90 minutes at the moment,” he said. “I was out for six weeks injured and have only managed 60 minutes football against Millwall in a reserve match since because of postponements.

“Before that I was mostly on the bench. I have hardly played this season.

“Even though I am not fully match fit, I have been training hard and have enough about me to be able to cope. I am not thinking of myself when I say this. I have put personal goals to one side.

“After all, I pulled out of international squads with Cyprus earlier in the season even if it meant I could just be on the bench for Brighton. I feel I have a lot to offer.”

The midfielder added: “What matters is Albion. I love the club, the lads and the fans and want to do my best for them.”

Unfortunately, after playing only 12 matches in 2005-06, he wasn’t kept on after the Seagulls were relegated on 30 April 2006, and he never played league football again.

Born in Westminster on 13 February 1983, Nicolas went to Trent CE Primary School in Cockfosters, where he first showed a talent with a football. He also enjoyed long distance running and tennis.

He played football for a decent Sunday League side in Colliers Wood alongside two other future professionals, Steve Sidwell and Leon Britton, and eventually became part of Arsenal’s youth set-up. But he ended up as an apprentice at Aston Villa, and got taken on as a professional. He was in the same under-19s squad as future Albion goalkeeper Wayne Henderson and defender Liam Ridgewell.

But in December 2001, he joined Chelsea on a free transfer, and with 24 starts plus one as a sub, he missed only one of the reserves side’s 26 matches in the 2002-03 season.

He was handed the no.27 shirt for the 2003-04 season and made his Chelsea first team debut in their 1-0 FA Cup win away to Scarborough on 24 January 2004.

John Terry scored the only goal of the game and Nicolas played in midfield alongside Frank Lampard and Emmanuel Pettit in a side also featuring Joe Cole and Wayne Bridge.

Guardian football reporter, Paul Wilson, noted: “Alexis Nicolas made an encouraging debut, but time and again Cole, in particular, would attempt something complicated when a simpler option was available.”

Nicolas made his Premiership debut a week later in a 1–0 win over Charlton Athletic. His only other appearance was as a 90th minute substitute for Lampard as the Blues rounded off the season with a 1-0 home win over Leeds United.

Nicolas spoke about those early years at Chelsea in an interview with Simon Yaffe of planetfootball.com.

“Ranieri called me into his office at the end of 2002-2003 and told me the club didn’t have a lot of money to invest and that he didn’t have too many midfielders at his disposal, so I would be in his plans for the following season,” Nicolas said.

Even as the oligarch’s takeover was going through in the summer of 2003, the youngster was part of Ranieri’s team which beat Newcastle United 5-4 on penalties in the final of the FA Premier League Asia Cup in front of a crowd of 41,500 in Kuala Lumpur’s national Bukit Jalil stadium. It was the first piece of silverware of the Abramovich era.

“It maybe wasn’t the most glamorous of trophies, but it was still the first of many under the new owner,” Nicolas said.

It wasn’t long before a flurry of big-name signings soon changed the picture for Nicolas; the arrival of five midfielders in particular being somewhat ominous.

“I had planned to go out on loan because I had fallen so far down the pecking order,” Nicolas added. “But some of the midfielders, like Makélélé and Petit, were picking up injuries, so I stuck around.

“Looking back, it was easy to think, ‘He’s signed, so that is why I am not playing,’ but it was really a turning point in Chelsea’s history, and it was nice to have been part of it.

“I was pleased for the club when Abramovich took over but also a little bit disappointed for myself.”

After relegated Brighton released him, Nicolas tried to continue his league career and had a trial with Bradford City, but after an unremarkable game for their reserves side, manager Colin Todd told the Bradford Telegraph & Argus: “At the moment I can’t guarantee him anything. His fitness levels aren’t the best but if he wants to continue to train with us and try to improve on that then it’s up to him.”

In fact, he decided to join St Albans City on 26 September 2006 and made his Nationwide Conference debut in a 2-1 defeat at Weymouth four days later.

On 12 November, the St Albans City website noted: “A knee injury restricted Alexis to just six appearances for St Albans City but, with a number of League One and League Two sides showing an interest, the player has decided to move on.”

Nicolas said he was grateful to manager Colin Lippiatt for giving him the opportunity and added: “I was not in the best of states when I joined the club but everyone has been a great help and when fully fit I hope to join one of the League One or League Two sides who are showing an interest in me.”

But it was a career in property investment that opened up for him instead and in 2012 he set up his own business in partnership with Ryan Springer.

He wasn’t completely done with football, though, and, also in 2012, Nicolas had a spell as player-manager of Hadley FC, a Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division side, and in 2014-15 he was part of the club’s management team under former Spurs and Chelsea player Micky Hazard.

Pictures as featured in the Albion matchday programme and from various online sources.

How Shots stopper Mark Beeney’s move saved the Albion

MARK BEENEY has coached young goalkeepers at Chelsea for nearly 20 years, but Brighton fans who saw him play remember his most important ever save.

The proceeds from his sale to Leeds United for £350,000 on 20 April 1993 quite literally saved the Albion from being wound up by the Inland Revenue.

Beeney had played 55 league and cup games in the Albion goal that season (missing only one because of a suspension) and he didn’t have much say in what happened next, as he remembered in an interview with the Argus in 2001.

“Albion were at Plymouth and the night before the game manager Barry Lloyd told me that he had given Leeds permission to talk to me and that he wanted me to negotiate a deal otherwise the club were history,” he said.

“I didn’t really have much choice because if I’d have turned down the chance I’d have been unemployed anyway with the financial situation at Albion.”

Howard Wilkinson, the former Albion winger who had led Leeds to the old Division One title the previous season, had been looking for a ‘keeper to compete with the ageing John Lukic, and Beeney fitted the bill….as well as footing the bill for Brighton where the taxman was concerned.

The move was certainly an upheaval in terms of geographical location but it presented Beeney with the chance to leap from third tier football into the Premier League.

It didn’t quite pan out as he might have hoped – most of his action was for Leeds’ reserve side! – but over the course of six years he played 49 games in the Premiership and 68 first team games in total for the Elland Road outfit.

Born in Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells, on 30 December 1967, Beeney went to St Francis Primary School in Maidstone then to St Simon Stock, a Catholic secondary school.

He first came to the attention of talent spotters when playing for Ringlestone Colts, a successful Maidstone junior side, and he was invited to join Gillingham, Kent’s only professional side at the time, as an associate schoolboy.

He made sufficient progress to be taken on as an apprentice by the Gills and turned professional in August 1985. He only played two first team games, though, and was given a free transfer by manager Keith Peacock.

Beeney, circled, when with the Maidstone United squad who won promotion to the league

He joined Maidstone United in January 1987 and, although they were in the GM Vauxhall Conference at the time, he helped them to gain promotion to the Football League in 1989.

His form for Maidstone led to international recognition when he played as a second half substitute for the England C (semi-professional) side in a 1-1 draw away to Italy on 29 January 1989. The game at Stadio Alberto Picco in La Spezia saw Fabrizio Ravanelli, a Champions League winner with Juventus seven years later, score the Italians’ goal.

Back at Maidstone, it wasn’t the best news for Beeney when Peacock arrived as manager. He ended up going on loan to Aldershot, where he played seven games. On his return, Maidstone’s goalkeeping coach Joe Sullivan recommended him to Brighton boss Barry Lloyd and the Seagulls paid a £25,000 fee to take him to the Goldstone in March 1991 as back-up to Perry Digweed.

Wheeler-dealer Lloyd had sold John Keeley to Oldham Athletic for £238,000 a year before – not a bad return for a player who cost £1,500 – and with the inexperienced Brian McKenna not really a meaningful challenger for Digweed’s place, Beeney was ideally suited to the Seagulls.

However, he had a rather ignominious start when, on 20 April 1991, Albion lost 3-0 at home to Oxford United but he kept a clean sheet second time around when he was between the sticks for a 1-0 win at Hull City before Digweed returned to star in the end-of-season excitement that culminated in a trip to Wembley for the play-off final.

Beeney’s third senior Albion appearance couldn’t have come in stranger circumstances, and I was at close quarters to witness it. I was a guest in the directors’ box at The Den, Millwall, on the evening of 4 September and tracksuited Beeney was sat a couple of rows behind me, having travelled but not been included in what in those days was a 13-man squad.

During the warm-up, Digweed suddenly pulled up with an injury and, after physio Malcolm Stuart attended to him, it was evident he wouldn’t be able to take part in the game. But the referee was poised to start the match, so the ‘keeper’s jersey was handed to Gary Chivers to go between the posts to avoid delaying the kick-off.

A discussion between the managers and the officials gave the green light to allow Albion to replace Digweed with a recognised ‘keeper and, although he hadn’t been due to be involved, Beeney was summoned from the stand to enter the fray as an emergency substitute.

Eight minutes of play had elapsed by the time he’d managed to leg it down to the changing room and get himself ready for action. John Crumplin, who had started the game in Chivers’ right-back slot instead of being on the bench, was forced to come off without having broken into a sweat, and a relieved Chivers resumed his more traditional defensive position.

Into the bargain, the eventful evening saw the Seagulls come away with a 2-1 win – their second successive victory at The Den, having won 2-1 there in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals four months earlier.

Digweed’s injury meant Beeney then had his first extended run in the side, playing in 30 of the following 31 league and cup games (loan American goalkeeper Juergen Sommer deputising in a 0-0 away draw at Cambridge United) before Digweed was finally restored to the no.1 spot in early February. Only five of the remaining 16 games were won and Albion were relegated back to the third tier.

When the new season got under way, Beeney had stepped up to become first choice ‘keeper, and, when interviewed in a matchday programme article, said: “I came as second string ‘keeper as I knew Perry was the number one but I have always wanted to establish myself and this season I have had my chance.”

As referred to earlier, his final Albion appearance came away to Plymouth on 17 April, and Beeney left the club having featured in 87 games plus that one as sub. He told the Argus he retained great affection for the Seagulls. “I remember it as a friendly club even though they didn’t have much to be cheerful about with the taxman trying to shut them down and the players were wondering whether they would get paid.

“There was a good spirit in the dressing room with experienced types like Fozzie (Steve Foster) and Johnny Byrne around the place who had seen it all before.

“I spent the least time there but it is the one former club that makes me most welcome. I appreciate that.”

With Beeney transferred, Digweed returned for the final three games of the season, but the 3-2 home win over Chester turned out to be his last game for the club, and Albion began the following season with 18-year-old Nicky Rust as their first-team ‘keeper.

Because Beeney’s transfer had gone through outside of the window, Leeds gained special dispensation from the FA and their opponents, Coventry City, to allow him to make his debut in the final game of the 1992-93 season, there being nothing of consequence at stake with both sides comfortably sitting in mid-table.

Beeney conceded three in the game at Highfield Road but the game finished 3-3, diminutive Rod Wallace a hat-trick hero, rescuing a point for Leeds with goals in the 87th and 90th minutes to add to his first half strike.

In his first full season at Elland Road, Beeney shared the no.1 spot with Lukic, but the former Arsenal stopper had the upper hand in the following two seasons.

And just when Beeney thought he would make the breakthrough, Leeds signed Nigel Martyn from Crystal Palace to take over from Lukic.

Beeney told the Argus: “I thought I was going to be no. 1 and Paul Evans no. 2 in 1996 and both Paul and I were told a deal with Nigel was not going through. A couple of days later he had joined. I was disappointed. But I decided to buckle down as we were happy at the club and in the North with my family. I ended up playing more than 400 reserves games, I was hardly ever injured, and it was frustrating.”

Beeney handles ouotside the box at Old Trafford and is sent off

One time when he did get a start, against Manchester United at Old Trafford, on 14 April 1996, he was sent off after 16 minutes! Wilkinson never picked a sub keeper, so defender Lucas Radebe had to go in goal.

The excellent Leeds archive website ozwhitelufc.net.au remembers Beeney as: “A big keeper, his meticulous planning left him well prepared as he keenly watched videos of potential penalty-takers. He proved a capable deputy for John Lukic, taking over from him when his form dipped. His contract was extended in June 1996 for a further two years, but he had to retire due to injuries sustained in a reserve game at Stoke City when he ruptured an Achilles tendon in March 1999.”

In fact, he ruptured it twice in the space of eight months, he told the Argus, and he quit playing professionally after taking the advice of Leeds’ boss at the time, David O’Leary, whose own career had ended with a similar injury.

“The medical people said the Achilles would not hold up to what was needed at the level I was at,” he said. “I sought a second opinion afterwards and was told the Achilles was strong but it’s so short it doesn’t give me the spring I need to play at the top.”

Beeney set up an executive chauffeur business – Victoria Beckham was among his clients – but a former playing colleague at Aldershot, Steve Wignall, had taken over as manager at Doncaster Rovers, and offered him a return to playing.

“I just wanted somewhere to train,” Beeney told the Argus. “He (Steve) said they needed cover as a goalkeeper so I might as well sign on. I played four reserve games and was substitute for the first team.”

Eventually, after eight years living in Yorkshire, Beeney moved the family back to Kent so sons Mitchell and Jordan could be nearer their grandparents. He linked up with Dover Athletic as a back-up ‘keeper and played in a couple of pre-season friendlies but was mainly standby to first choice Paul Hyde.

In October 2001, he switched to Sittingbourne as manager, and also began working two days a week with the young goalkeepers at Chelsea (under 21s, under 17s and under 16s).

He left Sittingbourne in 2004 when the role at Chelsea was made a permanent position, and he’s been coaching the Premier League club’s reserve and academy ‘keepers ever since, although he did work with the first team ‘keepers temporarily when Jose Mourinho was in charge in 2007.

Beeney the goalkeeping coach pictured in 2010

Both his sons went through the Chelsea academy as goalkeepers. Mitchell was at Chelsea from 2007 until 2018. He came close to first-team action as a non-playing substitute for a home 1-1 draw with Liverpool in May 2015, which he spoke about in an interview with the42.ie and he did get to play league football out on loan at Newport County and Crawley Town. When he finally left Chelsea, he moved to Ireland to play for Sligo Rovers and returned to the UK in 2019 to join Hartlepool United.

Younger son Jordan left Chelsea in 2014 after seven years and joined Charlton Athletic where he spent four years before being given a free transfer.

Pictures from Albion matchday programmes and online sources.

Jesse Lingard took steps to stardom at Brighton

MANCHESTER United youngster Jesse Lingard scored four goals in 17 appearances for Brighton in their 2013-14 Championship season.

As well as helping the Seagulls to reach the play-offs, the move proved a useful development step for Lingard, who later become a regular at United and played for England at the 2018 World Cup.

Former United boss Jose Mourinho spoke about the value of the experience in an interview with manutd.com ahead of a Brighton v Man Utd Premier League game in May 2018.

Although Sir Alex Ferguson involved him in the first team squad a couple of times in the 2011-12 season, his real senior football education began during a three-month loan to Leicester City (he was sent with Michael Keane) in November 2012.

And, although Lingard went on United’s pre-season tour Down Under in the summer of 2013, he joined Birmingham City on loan in September 2013.

He scored a total of six goals in 13 games for the Blues, including a debut four goals at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

Birmingham hoped to keep Lingard

They’d been hoping to re-sign him for the rest of the season but Albion nipped in at the end of February 2014 and he headed south to join Oscar Garcia’s promotion-chasing side until the end of the season.

Garcia told the club website: “We are delighted we have finally secured Jesse until the end of the season. He is one of the most exciting young English players and has already created a lot of interest following his successful loan spell at Birmingham.

“We worked hard to secure a talent who has already shown that he can play at Championship level, and I am very pleased to have added Jesse to our striking options.

“He has an excellent pedigree, having come through the academy at Old Trafford, and there is no doubt that he has a lot of talent and ability. I am really looking forward to working with him.”

Lingard got on the scoresheet in the 4-1 away win at already-crowned champions Leicester City, and four days later also found the net in a 3-0 win over Charlton.

In the third minute of added on time at home to Yeovil Town, Lingard added to Kazenga LuaLua’s opener to secure a 2-0 win in the last home league fixture.

He then scored Albion’s goal in the play-off first leg at home to Derby, but, with Albion losing the game 2-1, they were always on the back foot going into the second leg when County ran riot against the injury-ravaged Seagulls to win 4-1.

Lingard went back to United and got his first competitive first team start under Louis van Gaal in the season-opener against Swansea at Old Trafford, but the occasion was marred by him having to go off with a knee injury after only 24 minutes – and United lost 2-1.

The injury set his career back six months and, on his recovery, Lingard was sent out on loan again in February 2015 when former United assistant manager Steve McLaren took him to Derby County.

Back at Old Trafford the following season, he got his first United goal in November 2015 when United beat West Brom 2-0, and he began to establish himself, making a total of 40 appearances by the season’s end.

In fact, that season ended on a particularly high note for Lingard when he came off the bench to score the winning goal for United in the 2016 FA Cup Final against Crystal Palace.

The 2017-18 season saw him involved even more, when he made 48 appearances, and, even through managerial upheaval, he continued to be a regular member of the United first-team squad.

Born in Warrington on 15 December 1992, Lingard went to the town’s William Beaumont Community High School and was on United’s books from the age of seven.

He progressed through the different age groups but, as a slow developer physically, was still playing at under 16s level when he was 18.

Nevertheless, as a youth player at Manchester United, he helped them to win the FA Youth Cup in 2010-11.

An extended feature on Lingard’s development appeared in the matchday programme for Albion’s game at Old Trafford in November 2017.

One of the coaches involved in his development, academy advisor Tony Whelan, said: “Jesse has had to be patient throughout his career. As a younger player, he was physically under-developed so he had to play a younger age group. That wasn’t easy, but he had the patience, intelligence and trust in the coaching staff to know that those decisions were made in his best interests, that we knew at some point he was going to grow. At some point, all that ability would be able to come out.

“He’s got a wonderful mindset, so his ability to come on and make an impact on the game is down to the fact he’s resilient, he has a wonderful mentality, and he is a great observer of the game. That comes out all the time in the way he deals with things. And on top of that, he has his excellent technical ability.”

Whelan added: “He’s only of slight build, so he’s developed great technical ability, good passing, dribbling, he’s a really good mover – very fluid, a wonderful mover – and he’s athletic without looking that athletic.”

The coach said: “You don’t get in our first-team squad without being a very accomplished player. He’s also playing for the national team fairly regularly. That’s testimony to Jesse’s abilities as an all-round footballer now.”

Lingard was 23 when he made his full England debut, at Wembley against Malta, on 8 October 2016, and he went on to become part of the England squad that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2018.

He scored his first England goal in a 1-0 win away to the Netherlands in March 2018, and has since scored three more times in 24 matches; against Panama at the World Cup, against the USA at Wembley in November 2018 and three days later also at home against Croatia.

He’d already appeared on the international stage earlier in his career, playing three times for England under 17s in 2008 and scoring twice in 11 games for the under 21s between 2013 and 2015.

Coach Whelan summed up Lingard thus: “From the day he first walked into this football club at seven years of age, he always had a smile on his face. He’s always loved playing, always loved the game, always had wonderful enthusiasm, and in some ways he’s inspired the coaches with his love of the game and love of the ball.

“You never had to ask him to work hard, he was always running around, always energetic, always mischievous, and those are the qualities he brought.”

In an interview with the Albion matchday programme for Brighton’s home game with United in 2017-18, Lingard reflected on his loan spell with the Seagulls and said: “I wanted to go to the club because I knew they were a good club with a great stadium and great fans – it was the perfect club to go on loan to.”

He added: “The stadium, the staff, the fans, you could see the ambition of the club. I always knew that the club would make it into the Premier League. It was heading in that direction for a couple of seasons.”

The 2019-20 season saw a marked decline in Lingard’s fortunes with his starts for United under double figures, and most of his involvement coming off the bench. He also lost his place in the England squad.

It was revealed a business venture had performed badly and, sadly, trying to cope with personal issues involving his family impacted Lingard’s form and demeanour.

After United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer challenged him publicly over his declining performances, he decided to talk about the problems publicly.

After the curtain came down on the season, Lingard told his 6.6 million Instagram followers: “This season has been difficult for so many reasons. I lost who I was as a player and person, but I never wanted to give up.

“I knew who I really was on and off the pitch and knew that having been there before I could get there again.”

“This meant working harder than I’d ever done before and trusting in those around me that they knew how to best help me achieve that.

“I know the fans have been frustrated but in all this time my love for this club and everyone connected to it has never left me.”

“This team, this club is my family and I will continue to keep working harder than ever to help this team achieve its goals.”

However, with several new faces arriving at Old Trafford prior to the start of the 2020-21 season, football’s rumour mill was busy suggesting Solskaer was looking to offload Lingard.

In January 2021, Lingard joined West Ham on a half-season loan and the change of scene seemed to give his career a boost. He scored twice on his debut in a 3-1 win over Aston Villa and finished the season with nine goals in 16 appearances for the Hammers.

He returned to Man Utd for the 2021-22 season, playing in 22 league and cup games but only scoring twice.

When his contract wasn’t renewed at Old Trafford, in the summer of 2022, Lingard signed a one-year deal with newly promoted Nottingham Forest on a reported £200,000 a week.

‘Bright prospect’ James Wilson faded after great start

JW v WolvesGREAT things were expected of James Wilson after he scored two goals on his Manchester United debut.

Caretaker manager Ryan Giggs gave the 18-year-old the opportunity to prove himself at first-team level in a home game against Hull City in 2014 and he was instantly repaid.

Wilson UtdA few months later, Wilson signed a four-year contract, with new manager Louis van Gaal describing him as “one of the brightest young English prospects”.

But that early promise evaporated as injury problems and the emergence of the talented Marcus Rashford overshadowed his progress.

“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone on loan at Brighton and while I was there Rashford came through,” Wilson told ESPN. “I came back and never really got that chance again. Injuries were a big thing.”

The Biddulph-born striker eventually severed ties with Old Trafford in the summer of 2019 having first joined United in 2002 aged only seven.

In the season after his impressive debut against Hull, he made a further 17 appearances for United and scored two more, but he appeared in only one Premier League game and one League Cup game in 2015-16, and didn’t feature for United’s first team again.

JW England u21Wilson represented England at under 16, under 19, under 20 and under 21 levels but a career in England’s top-flight proved elusive and he is now playing for Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen.

One of several loan spells Wilson had away from United saw him join Brighton’s ultimately unsuccessful bid for promotion from the Championship in November 2015.

Although he showed glimpses of real quality, and scored five goals, he often seemed to be fatigued and ended up making just 12 starts plus 15 more from the bench.

Perhaps, rather unfortunately, he is best remembered for being caught by the TV cameras vomiting on the pitch immediately before a game against Wolves on New Year’s Day.

Wilson’s start for the Seagulls was impressive enough: a goal on his full debut in a 3-2 win over Charlton Athletic. “I remember picking the ball up on the edge of the D and just drove at the centre backs. They backed off, I managed to get my shot away and it went through their ‘keeper’s legs,” he said in a subsequent Albion matchday programme.

He followed that one with the opener in a 2-2 draw away to Derby County.

Tomer Hemed and Sam Baldock were more often than not manager Chris Hughton’s preferred selection up front although Wilson rewarded Hughton’s decision to give him his first start for two months in place of Hemed in a home game against Reading on 15 March. He scored the only goal of the game and Albion edged into second place as the promotion race hotted up.

JW scores v DerbyHe also scored (above) in the fifth minute of added on time to secure Albion a point in their penultimate league game at home to Derby, but when runners-up spot eluded the Seagulls courtesy of the last-game 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, and when Albion failed to overcome Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship play-offs, Wilson returned to Old Trafford.

At the start of the following season, he was on his travels again, this time to Derby, but his season-long loan ended prematurely in October 2016 when he sustained an anterior cruciate ligament knee injury that sidelined him for months.

While he eventually returned to action in United’s under 23 side, he didn’t get a first team chance under Jose Mourinho and instead spent the second half of the 2017-18 season on loan to Sheffield United where he scored once in nine appearances.

He spent the whole of the 2018-19 season on loan at Aberdeen, scoring four goals in 32 games and then signed for them permanently in the summer of 2019, aiming to reignite his career. But having not scored in 16 games in the latter part of 2019, he was allowed to return to the Manchester area, signing on 31 January 2020 for League Two Salford City.

James Wilson Aberdeen

Injury curtailed Saints stalwart Jason Dodd’s Albion swansong

INJURY deprived Albion of the services of the experienced former Southampton captain Jason Dodd throughout the 2005-06 season.

After completing 499 games for Saints, Dodd had originally intended to retire at the end of the 2004-05 season having been sidelined by boss Harry Redknapp to such an extent that he’d gone out on loan to Plymouth Argyle.

However, Brighton were missing the long-term injured Adam Hinshelwood and manager Mark McGhee gave the 34-year-old Dodd a season-long deal at the Albion.

Dodd slotted in at right-back for the opening five fixtures of the season but then had to have surgery on a troublesome ankle injury which put him out of action for two months.

He returned to first team action at the end of November but was then struck by a mystery back injury that was severely debilitating, as he told The Argus.

“They cannot really pinpoint what the problem is and it isn’t just not being able to train,” he told the paper. “I am in constant pain 24-seven so, from my point of view, it’s not just at work it’s when I go home. I can’t pick the kids up or go for a walk with the dog.”

Dodd col HSUnfortunately, he managed just two more games in a season when Albion finished bottom of the Championship table. One fond memory I have of his contribution to Albion’s cause came in a game at QPR in March 2006.

The game was memorable for the sending off just after half time of Rangers’ skipper and long-serving striker Kevin Gallen for punching Paul McShane. Sadly, Albion only managed to take a point when they really needed three, but it was their first away point for nine games, so it was a triumph of sorts.

QPR full back Marcus Bignot put a deep Gary Hart cross through his own net under pressure from substitute Joe Gatting to equalise Gareth Ainsworth’s early header for Rangers.

The tricky Ainsworth gave Adam El-Abd, playing in an unfamiliar left back role, such a torrid time that McGhee switched the fullbacks with half-an-hour played and put Adam Hinshelwood there instead. Shortly after half time, McGhee switched it again and Dodd replaced El-Abd.

In the 40 minutes, or so, he was on the pitch he showed what we had missed by providing an outlet for some neat passing, and hardly ever gave the ball away.

Born in Bath on 2 November 1970, Dodd began his distinguished career by signing for his home town club, non-league Bath City. In 1989, Southampton paid £15,000 to take the 18-year-old to The Dell.

Jason Dodd (Southampton)

He certainly couldn’t have got off to a better start, making his first team debut at home to Liverpool, marking England international John Barnes.

Londonsaints.com was fulsome in its praise for the impact he made, declaring: “Not only did he completely snuff out the efforts of the England winger but found enough time to supply a perfect cross for Paul Rideout’s opening goal in a momentous 4-1 win.”

From that encouraging beginning, he went on to establish himself as Saints’ regular right back, playing under nine different managers and captaining the side. Dodd remained a fixture in a team that more often than not found itself fighting for survival in the top flight.

Between 1990 and 1991, he won eight England under-21 caps, making his debut in a 1-0 defeat to Poland at White Hart Lane on 16 October 1990 and playing his last game against the same opponent, away in Pila, on 11 November 1991, when England lost 2-1, their goal being scored by Paul Kitson, who later played for Brighton.

In his fifth under 21 game, Dodd was sent off as England trounced Mexico 6-0, when, as well as a goal for Kitson, Alan Shearer scored a hat-trick (including two penalties).

Although Dodd had been involved in earlier rounds of the FA Cup in 2003, injury meant he missed out on the final, when Saints lost to Arsenal.

At the end of his injury-plagued season with Brighton, Dodd joined his former Saints teammate Francis Benali as a coach at non-league Eastleigh before stepping into the manager’s role for seven months.

The lure of his old club was too great, though, and, in the summer of 2007, he became first team coach at Southampton under George Burley. He was briefly caretaker manager before leaving Saints in July 2008, had a short tenure as caretaker manager at Aldershot in the autumn of 2009, and then returned once again to Southampton as a development coach and under 18s coach at St Mary’s.

During his five years with the Saints youth academy, working with former teammate Paul Williams, together they brought through the likes of Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers and James Ward-Prowse.

But they were controversially let go in May 2014 – some reports said it was because they didn’t spend enough time with the younger age groups.

Shaw took to Twitter when news of their dismissal was announced saying he was “gutted” for them.

Dodd obviously keeps a close eye on the progress of the young players he was once responsible for and, when Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho subbed Shaw at half-time during United’s 2-0 FA Cup win over Brighton in 2018, the BBC sought Dodd’s opinion. He admitted a tough love approach was the way to get the best out of him.

“He does make you pull your hair out at times. You have to try different things to get the best out of him,” said Dodd. ”I think they have tried everything and they have not got through to him to get him out on the pitch and perform.

“Luke is one of those players where you have to keep on, you have to keep pushing him and he needs to be challenged.

“I was constantly on him. He likes it. He needs more of a cuddle, and then give him a little dig,” Dodd added.

The Saints stalwart is frequently asked his views on current happenings, but his day job is as head of football in the PE department of independent school, Winchester College. He has a few other sidelines on the go, as he told the Daily Echo earlier this year.